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Thursday, November 13, 2008

Wink Murder.

Wink Murder, Murder Wink, or Wink Wink Murder is a party game for many people. The absolute minimum number of players is four, but the spirit of the game is best captured by groups of at least six players, and can be played by as many as 35 players and up.

In each round of play, one player is assigned the role of murderer, with the ability to "murder" other players by making eye contact and winking at them. If a player is winked at, they feign sudden death and are removed from the game. Other players are forbidden from winking. The objective of the murderer is to murder as many people as possible.

Variants of Wink Murder: In one variation of the game, sometimes played by children as a
class activity in primary school, another player, unaware of the
murderer's identity, is assigned the role of "detective". All other
players sit in a circle around the detective, whose objective is to
correctly identify and accuse the murderer, minimizing the number of
murder victims. A limit is often imposed upon the number of accusations
the detective can make. In this version of the game, players other than
the murderer and detective do not necessarily know the murderer's
identity, and have no role to play in the game other than to die
noticeably if winked at.

In another variation of the game,
cards such as playing cards are allocated to all players, with one
specified card randomly determining the identity of the murderer —
players may not reveal their cards to each other. All players who are
not murderer effectively take on the role of detective, with the
objective of correctly identifying and accusing the murderer. Every
accusation must be seconded by another player, with a false accusation
resulting in the death (that is, the removal from the round of play) of
both the accuser and the seconder. This version of the game can be
played in an informal setting, requiring only that players are all
within sight of each other — the game can be played concurrently with
other activities (such as conversation or another game).

Optional Roles for Wink Murder:

The Accomplice is an optional role. The Accomplice kills in the same
way as the murderer, but can only kill once, and the murderer may
automatically win if the Accomplice is accused.

The Nurse is another optional role, who is able to resuscitate dead players by blowing them a kiss.

In larger groups, there may be several Nurses or Accomplices, or even several Murderers or Detectives.

Variant, Murder Handshake and Blink: Murder handshake is a variation where the players are expected to
shake hands, and the murderer kills by using a special handshake,
usually scratching the victim's palm. Many prefer this version of the
winking version because "killing" someone is not as easily noticeable by
third parties, and there's less chance for error (e.g. if a player
blinks while looking at someone from the side, it could be interpreted
as a wink even if he/she is not the actual killer).

Blink is a variation where everyone keeps blinking at a fast rate and the murderer quickly 'winks' and that person dies.